RSS Feed MenuAt an event hosted yesterday by the Department of Education, Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden admitted that she knew little about the D.C. School Choice Program, perhaps the highest-profile issue in local Washington, D.C. politics.
Dr. Biden has a Ph.D in Education, has spent nearly fifteen years teaching in high schools, and currently works as an educator at a Washington-area community college. She’s lived in Washington, D.C. for over a year, over which the future of school choice has been threatened by congressional Democrats hoping to phase the program out. During her residence in D.C., the school choice issue has been the most visible issue in local politics.
Furthermore, as evidenced by her attendance at the Department of Education’s event and her inclusion on the White House’s website, she has been acting as an informal advocate for the Obama administration on educational issues.
In the video below, taken by the Washington News Observer during an event on educational policy, Biden is on stage with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI).
When she was asked what she thought about the cuts to the D.C. School Choice Program. She replied: “I really haven’t followed it. I’ve been really busy teaching at Northern Virginia Community College.”
Advocates of school choice were quick to criticize Biden’s lack of attention to a critical issue.
“That’s funny. Maybe she hasn’t heard about the Salahis crashing the White House either,” joked Jeanne Allen, President of the Center for Education Reform.
“Perhaps [this] explains in part why this Administration has ignored the cries of children in their new city of residence who most need their help at this critical time in their young lives,” Allen continued. “And ironically, this is a program that then Senator Joe Biden once supported. I would hope, that having heard about it now (or been reminded), Mrs. Biden might be moved to do something about the D.C. OSP program.”
“I’m surprised she hasn’t heard of it… and that’s unfortunate. One would think, though, that if you are involved in education and care about the kids in the city you would know about and support this program,” said Kevin Chavous, a former D.C. Council Member and Chair of the Council’s Education Committee.
“What’s even more unacceptable than her not knowing about the program is that this administration has deliberately chosen not to reauthorize the program,” continued Chavous.
According to the White House, Dr. Biden “continues to work to raise awareness on education”. Maybe she should take a look at the critical issues in her own neighborhood before doing any more of that.
balconesfault // Jan 6, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Perhaps the GOP should come out in favor of not just limiting federally funded vouchers to DC … and not just to 3300 students a year … but should rather create a program where students nation wide are granted vouchers funded by the Federal Government anytime they want to attend a private school. Of course, perhaps this should be means tested. So maybe federally funded vouchers nationwide for any and all qualifying students whose parents make 40% of the national median household income?
Arch // Jan 7, 2010 at 10:38 am
Hardly seems sporting to go after her about not yet knowing much about this. I’m sure it’s been a busy year settling in a new city, stepping into a new and much more public role.
JeninCT // Jan 7, 2010 at 12:55 pm
I admire her honestly, but you can’t swing a dead cat without reading a story about vouchers and how they were ripped out of the hands of some of DC’s best and brightest.
Hey, has Katie Couric ever asked her or her husband what periodicals they read?
balconesfault // Jan 7, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Hey, has Katie Couric ever asked her or her husband what periodicals they read?
So is the question here whether Jill Biden is qualified to be President of the United States?
Personally, I’d vote no.
Arch // Jan 7, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Hey, has Katie Couric ever asked her or her husband what periodicals they read?
I bet she could answer the question, at least.
Carney // Jan 7, 2010 at 2:52 pm
The problem with vouchers is that parents sacrifice greatly to keep their kids AWAY from the students in question. Unlike generations ago, which could affordably raise children in urban environments and send them confidently to the public schools of Detroit, New York, etc. (when there were no vouchers either, I strongly note), today’s parents are desperate to escape the violence, ignorance, chaos, and systemic failure of the schools, caused in large part not just by the (conventional conservative whipping boys of the) bureaucracy and unions, but by the STUDENTS. Low-IQ, high testosterone, utterly incorrigible students.
To escape this extremely destructive element, the parents have to get to the suburbs, the more distant over time as inner suburbs (PG County) decay, and take out huge mortgages and become anxiety ridden slaves to their own homes. (Which causes them to be quiet victims of PC, since they cannot utter a peep lest they lose their jobs and thus their expensive homes). They have to engage in lengthy commutes that are fatiguing and eat enormous portions of their days and lifespans, taking away time with their families or personal interests. Desirable public school districts are extremely expensive to live near, and private school is even more backbreaking.
How fair is it to these parents, then, to unleash hordes of school-wrecking slum denizens on their local schools, even the private schools?
JeninCT // Jan 8, 2010 at 1:38 pm
“How fair is it to these parents, then, to unleash hordes of school-wrecking slum denizens on their local schools, even the private schools?”
Life isn’t fair. In my opinion, kids will rise to whatever expectation we have of them.
Mandos // Jan 8, 2010 at 8:32 pm
The students are often quite intelligent in realizing that much of their educational effort will be wasted by society.
Carney // Jan 9, 2010 at 12:24 am
JeninCT said, “Life isn’t fair.”
That is not a justification for enacting a public policy in knowledge that it will create a new unfairness that had not existed before.
“In my opinion, kids will rise to whatever expectation we have of them.”
Silly nonsense. Much of the current public school system operates on this fallacy. “No Child Left Behind”, the religious emphasis on self-esteem, etc.
But the most important reality in life as well as in school is inequality – permanent, ingrained, unfixable, genetic inequality. Some people are just smarter, faster, stronger, healthier, more motivated, and so forth than others. This will never change. In fact, most people are not college material, and some do not deserve even a meaningful high school degree. Telling random children that they can be astronauts, lawyers, or president is cruel nonsense, like telling wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy sufferers that they have a future in the NBA.
Mandos // Jan 9, 2010 at 12:58 am
It’s very difficult to show that students in failing schools are genetically inferior than students in better schools, when there’s a much stronger association with systemic economic failure and urban blight drowning out all other variables.
Mandos // Jan 9, 2010 at 1:02 am
But Carney has highlighted a potential *benefit* of voucher programs that I didn’t quite realize: undoing the effects of “white flight” and resegregation.